President Obama declared a crisis in the soaring cost of higher education here Thursday and unveiled a broad new plan that aims to make college education more affordable by tying federal financial aid to new college ratings.

The plan, which Obama rolled out as he opened a two-day campaign-style bus tour of college campuses, would create a rating system beginning in 2015 to evaluate colleges on tuition, the percentage of low-income students, graduation rates and debt of graduates.

Eventually, as an incentive for schools to make improvements in these areas, federal financial aid would be awarded based on those ratings. Obama said he could create the ratings system through executive action, but the plan to reallocate federal aid based on the ratings would require congressional approval.

The ever-rising rates of tuition inflation and student debt are certainly massive problems for the health and structure of our economy, but one of the largest factors that has contributed to them is the cheap and easy availability of federally subsidized students loans that have shaped the decision-making of young people over other options and allowed colleges to keep hiking their prices. It certainly doesn’t sound like the worst thing his administration has ever come up with, but I’m not convinced that the proposal is going to do much to get at the underlying problem and I’m pretty sure there could be some pretty nasty unintended consequences — the sort of which top-down government interference is wont to beget. Like the student-loan crisis in the first place. I’m no education expert, though — see NRO, Marginal Revolution, and ViaMeadia for some good thoughts.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

So colleges that graduate everybody will get more money? Sounds like an ivy league redistribution scheme. State colleges graduate no where near the rate the ivy league (send your rich but not so smart children here) schools.

Maybe Obama should go back to school as he knows so little about the constitution. The federal government is basically forbidden to be involved with education.

An article from Cato says:

…the U.S. Constitution grants no authority over education to the federal government. Education is not mentioned in the Constitution of the United States, and for good reason. The Founders wanted most aspects of life managed by those who were closest to them, either by state or local government or by families, businesses, and other elements of civil society. Certainly, they saw no role for the federal government in education.

Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, Congress understood that. The History of the Formation of the Union under the Constitution, published by the United States Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission, under the direction of the president, the vice president, and the Speaker of the House in 1943, contained this exchange in a section titled “Questions and Answers Pertaining to the Constitution”:

A much simpler way to get university rip-off prices under control is to DROP the entire federal student loan program!

This action will not hurt the students. It will in fact force the universities to either reduce their prices to affordable levels or to go out of business!

How many teachers, and administrators, will SCREAM for a nice salary cut to lower prices instead of losing a job? How many new universities, with far lower prices, will form around these unemployed teachers?

We need to move education away from the current socialist structures and into the free market.

Like health care, liberals always attempt last century’s solutions. A Soviet Style State instead of pushing technology in the areas where its needed – medical technology – so that technology can reduce the cost of health care.

Now we are on the eve of MOOCs which will alter education and reduce the costs dramatically. But Obama – the One, the Farseer, the Most Intelligent President Ever elected – wants to do for education what he did for healthcare.

Watch the Republicans go full bore out to support this, because they are as bunch of statists as the Demon Rats.

Any college that prints maps with the Maldives off of South America will get feral government money. Any college that calls those islands the Malvines will get nothing. Any college whose maps call them the Falklands will be shut down.

Obama does not understand he is not on the 2016 ballot. He is still out there campaigning…pandering…trying to get back the youth vote.

The last bunch of his “youth vote” got kicked hard in the short hairs by Obama’s abysmal understanding of simple economics.

This newer younger crowd is still malleable, impressionable, easy to fool.

There are already “metrics” out there to make judgements on colleges…there is also an annual US News and World Report publication, from which the totally unknowing can begin to gather some essentials, and Playboy still publishes “Party School of the Country” ratings each year.

And a host of more serious resources readily available if one is willing to look for themselves.

But, let’s put it this way…if you are too stupid or lazy or too busy getting busy to figure out what school is the best match for your abilities and interests, and cannot figure out that taking tens of thousands of dollars in loans is not a wise way to go…then maybe, no, then probably you are simply not college material, no matter what Mom and Dad, your relatives, your homeys and bros tell you.

When Obama started talking about “graduation rates” I wanted to throw a beer bottle at the TV…wasn’t about to risk a fine snifter of Hennessy XO.

Graduation rates are a function of the student…

Easy rules to understand…

Do the work, excel in the work, learn, learn some more, incorporate that learning into new learning…

Network among fellow students (the good ones, not the party ones) and with professors and grad assistants…get your cute adorable little face out there…and make sure they know who you are, your interests, strengths and weaknesses, too…

And read like your life depended on it, not just the assigned readings but the stuff in the bibliography and footnotes as well, as much as you can squeeze into a given day or weekend…and ditch the 24/7 video games…and graduation is sure thing.

Old School.

It works.

New skool…gubmint gonna give it to me…does not.

Government has no business in picking and choosing winners…

That is totally up to the individual students.

Barry is grasping at straws to leave some sort of positive legacy after he is banished from the kingdom…he’ll say anything at any time…or, like they said back in the army, if you throw enough sh*t, some is gonna stick to the wall at some point.

Notice that Barky who constantly laments the greedy corp., the greedy doctor, the greedy landlord says nothing about academia where costs have quadrupled inflation and where kids are scammed into believing if you take those courses in gender studies and queer theory then JL Morgan Chase will hire you at 70K right out of school.

Sounds like an excuse to hire a few thousand more federal employees and create another worthless, expensive bureaucracy.

History shows us that every time the federal government gets involved in something with good intentions, the program gets taken over by progressive social engineers who twist it into another hideous soul sucking beast whose results bare no resemblance to the initial proposal.

They will use the fraudulent evaluation process to funnel money to where ever the radical left wants it.

Obama is a puppet to the Unions and they would only allow this if it ended up putting money in the right pockets.

The best part…..in typical mindless ideologue fashion, Obama has zero clue what is actually causing the problem he claims to want to fix, so he is essentially prescribing an argyle sock to treat cancer.

Another day, another shovel full of dirt from the hole the country sits in……

Interesting note. A White House spokesperson was recently quoted saying ” The president has a preference for black colleges and universities.”

Given the IRS scandal, and Eric Holders ( an Obama appointee and the man for whom Obama issued an EO claiming Executive Privilege on account of) obvious prejudices and bigotry playing out in the form of law suits against states that have the audacity to try and clean up the election process by requiring voter ID’s to be certain that those who vote are actually eligible to vote…in spite of a Supreme Court decision affirming those efforts..

…I have to wonder how much Obama’s personal preferences for black colleges and universities is going to effect his new rating system…and ultimately, the distribution of federal student aid.

If you do not hold social justice dear to your heart, the focus of all your energies, you are simply a racist bitter clinger and need to be removed from society (see Bill Ayers — Prairie Fire) or simply punished to make amends for centuries of being white.

I used the GI bill plus two part time jobs to get through college debt free. My daughter worked full time and attended part time to get through college and law school debt free. My son taught himself to program in 5 different programming languages by the age of 16 and has been employed as a programmer ever since. He dropped college when he realized the other students were coming to him for help instead of the professors as they realized he knew more about real world programing than the profs did. Yes college costs have increased but there are always ways to get out with no debt.

First and foremost, no federal loans or financial aids to anyone going for majors that are not scientific… We do not want to give $ 200,000 to fools majoring in gender studies or the other idiotic humanities majors knowing full well that the vast majority of them will never get a good enough job to pay their college debt…

The problem with STEM and I am a STEM grad is that it is feast or famine. A shortage occurs and everyone jumps into that area but by the time they graduate the shortage is over because the need was now and their were no Americans to fill the positions and lots of H1 visas are given in the area and cheaper overseas talent is allowed to be brought in.

Don’t get me wrong STEM majors are good but you need to be smart about watching the trends and selecting the correct field.

The problem with STEM and I am a STEM grad is that it is feast or famine. A shortage occurs and everyone jumps into that area but by the time they graduate the shortage is over because the need was now and their were no Americans to fill the positions and lots of H1 visas are given in the area and cheaper overseas talent is allowed to be brought in.

Don’t get me wrong STEM majors are good but you need to be smart about watching the trends and selecting the correct field.

chemman on August 22, 2013 at 9:23 PM

It is against the law to pay people on H1B visa a lower salary than American with the same position, the same experience, in the same company… The reason we got all these H1B visa is that students and their dumb parents think that their kids just going to college and getting any f***ing degree in stupid humanities is going to guarantee them a great job…

Obama’s 3-point plan
1) Cause a huge problem by throwing money at something until it gets bloated
2) Propose a new bureaucratic fix to the problem he created and call it “reform”
3) Campaign on it as an accomplishment

The ever-rising rates of tuition inflation and student debt are certainly massive problems for the health and structure of our economy, but one of the largest factors that has contributed to them is the cheap and easy availability of federally subsidized students loans that have shaped the decision-making of young people over other options and allowed colleges to keep hiking their prices.

Not just the student loans. Also the Pell grants. And VA benefits.

Once Pell grants and VA benefits and student loans could be applied to textbooks, the price of textbooks skyrocketed.

The real effect of all this federal money flowing to universities was to enable all universities to raise their tuition and fees, and textbook prices.

Obama and his cronies created this problem, and now Obama wants to claim credit for reform.

well this will crush the middle class…… lets look how they get screwed already…….. Private university with a price tag of 50k a year……. if ya mom and dad make oodles of money and can pay the tuition junior don’t have a problem…….. if mom and dad are poor gubrmint grants will pick up about 35k . So junior needs to take out loans to the tune of 15k………. now if junior comes from da middle class mom & pops make too much for the little squirt to qualify for grants … no need to worry…. junior can get loans for the entire 50k…..,,.,.,. yep…. nut’n like da big FU to da Middle Class.

to evaluate colleges on tuition, the percentage of low-income students, graduation rates and debt of graduates.

Yeah, tie it to graduation rates and suddenly, college will be just like high school — lots of illiterate/barely-literate who somehow make it through to graduation. Think grade inflation is bad now? There are ways of making it worse. A college degree will become meaningless.

How about rating colleges based on a combination of starting salaries and mid-career salaries? Much harder to fake that one.

Look, lets be honest… any rating approach will be gamed, either at the college or major level. The only TRUE way to reform college tuition is to MAKE THE COLLEGE THE CO-SIGNER OF THE STUDENT LOANS THEY ACCEPT. If the college continues to promote majors that have little support in the marketplace, then they will be on the hook when the graduates default on the loans. Colleges will either focus on majors that are rewarded in the marketplace, or they will go bankrupt and close their doors.

As always, the free market always corrects what government tries to skew…

He’s got Common Core underway in the public schools, now it’s time to move on up to take control, by way of how much federal funds a college receives, by mandating that Rachel Jeantel gets her diploma. BTW, was there free pizza for this event?

Make the college the co-signer of the student loans they accept. If a student defaults on the loan, the college will be required to pay the balance + interest + 10% penalty on the original balance.

This would make them think twice about assisting a student in financing an impractical degree. And by applying the interest and penalty onto the default, they wouldn’t be able to “write themselves checks” to be invested against the risk of default.